A Hometown of Quito: How Did It Change

In the last few years, in the different trips I have had to New York, New Jersey, Virginia and outside the country to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The city in which I observed a big difference and a lot of changes was in Quito, where I was born. I notice a mix of cultures and a big increment in the population. Something that is helping the economy and making possible the expansion of the city, the creation of a bigger airport, new and modern structures and a better transportation system¬. I saw a brand new tourist attraction call the Teleferic that is attracting more tourists to the city. Overall in the last few years Quito has become a bigger more modern

As I arrived in Quito I started to see the changes. One of thing that I saw different when I land was the airport. Since our currency is the dollar now more people is coming from different part of the world to live there, visit their families or just for vacation, and to provide a better service the airport has being expanded and reconstructed. Now the airport is about the side of two baseball field almost the double of side that it was years ago. Inside the airport building almost everything is new, more elegant, fashioned and technological. The walls are cover with colorful pictures and new windows made of transparent and crystals glass. The waiting areas are expanded and with wireless access everywhere. It has small shopping centers that only had exclusive and expensive clothe, electronics, and shoes it also have a new restaurant that offered expensive wines. In addition to all this also every airline now have its own space where someone could pick out there luggage’s without making long lines to look for it, elevators and electronic stairs, and automatic doors instead of manual. Outside to make the place safety they put an office police, a bus station and a rental car next to the airport. Years ago there was not any rental car and we use to walked two or three blokes away from the airport to take a bus or tax without any police protection. It was kind of danger and very scary to walk there , especially in holidays were almost one of twenty were assaulted, but now thanks to all this new renovation the criminality has reduce and the people are not afraid any more to came to this airplane.

Most of the communities where my relatives live and where I was during my trip have also change. In the past in these are there was a lot of trees and free land to play around. The streets were smaller each side it only one road. We did not have any sign that help us to crossed the street, we use to crossed the streets by looking to all the sides making sure that there was any car coming close to us and if we did not saw any we crossed the streets . Now since there are more houses and cars that before there is also a lot of traffic and to reduce it they had use these free lands and cut a lot of tress to reconstruct the stress. They have make them into two or three roads longer each side and to help people to cross them in order and safety, they have also put pedestrian crossing light in. They had also put more bus stopped in the communities that have more people.

Today there is also a new rapid transportation call Eco via and Trolleybus. These two types of buses take you from the North to the South side of the city in just minutes. The only different between these two types of buses is that the trolleybus instead of using gasoline most of the time use electricity. In the top of this type of transportation there are two cables that are connected to the electricity lines and that allowed it to function electronically. On the other hand the Eco via use more gas but takes you directly from one stop to the other without stopping anywhere else something that other buses don’t do they make a stop anywhere were they see a passenger. Another difference is that these buses are more safety and secure, since the others does not have a specific horary where they have to be in one stop, they tend to stop anywhere they see a passage until the bus behind them cached and they start scampering until one of them win the next stop, something that every day kills at list one person a day for automobilist accidents.

There were also new, elegant and bigger buildings. Years ago the bigger building that we had was about twenty floors height. Now I saw a lot of them and even more height. One of them was the hotel I was hosted that was thirty-five floors. Most of them were made of metal and black windows in all side, something that in my opinion make the city more modern. Also a new mall that is now recognizes as one of the bigger mall in the whole country. Inside it have twenty like small stores where you can buy almost everything that you need for you home. You could find from close to you family to fortune to your house and a food marker. You can find a pet store, a jewelry store, an electronic store; you can find almost all stores that you can imagine is now there

Another thing that I saw complete different was one of the most important parks of the city “La Carolina”. The park where I spend most of my childhood .When I saw it I was so surprise to see all new thing that it have now and how beautiful and attractive it is. Year ago most of the park was a grass and trees and the only things that it had was a soccer field, a place to run and bicycle. Now everything was different, most of the park was occupied. I saw a new tennis field, basketball field, volleyball field, a lot of swings and a small lake with fish and ducks where you have a fun, I love the way is now.

One day before I came back to Ohio I when to see one of the new touristic attractions that a lot of people say made the city more interest to visit, I went to see the Teleferico. The Teleferico is a new transport that takes you up to the highest mountain and side of Pichincha Volcano to a height of about 4,100 meters (~13,400 feet. Ones in the mountain you can see a spectacular panoramic vista of the city and surrounding mountains. You can also see an amusement park, shopping center, food court, exclusive restaurants, coffee shops, horseback riding and a nightclub. In a second phase of the construction there is an hotel, a spa, a movie theater complex, a botanic garden and a bird watching area.

In my way to the airport something that I realized that had also changed in the city was that peoples believe and perception to things had change. This city has always been known as one of the most religious cities in the country. In the past it was immoral to see two couples living together without married or even worse two see two peoples of the different sex kissing in the street. Now since our currency is the dollar and many people from around the world have immigrated to this city, everything has change. Today we can see that all this things are very normal to do and also that gay people to get married.

Overall, all this new things that I saw make during my trip made feel like I was in a complete new city that every day is progressing and becoming more economy and social stable. I also realized that now Quito is a city that welcomes everybody without any exception of gender, nationality or sexual orientation. Fortunately, next year I would go back again and I cannot wait to see new changes in my new city.